The present invention relates to apparatus for manipulating receptacles, especially to improvements in apparatus for manipulating so-called chargers or trays which are used for temporary storage of rod-shaped articles forming part of or constituting smokers' products. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for establishing a connection between a maker of rod-shaped articles (hereinafter called cigarettes) and a machine which processes or consumes such articles. Typical examples of makers are cigarette rod making or filter tipping machines, and typical examples of processing machines are filter tipping machines (if the maker is a cigarette making machine) and packing machines (if the maker is a cigarette making machine or a filter tipping machine). Trays or chargers are also used for temporary storage and curing of filter rod sections. All in all, rod-shaped articles which can be temporarily stored in chargers or trays can constitute plain or filter cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, cheroots or filter rod sections.
Problems arise when the articles which are stored in trays or chargers (hereinafter called trays for short) are axially non-symmetrical. An example of an axially non-symmetrical article is a filter cigarette which has a filter mouthpiece at one of its axial ends. Another example of an axially non-symmetrical article is a plain or filter cigarette which carries an imprint (such as the brand name of the manufacturer, the name of the manufacturer, the trademark and/or a combination of these) nearer to the one than to the other end or where the imprint is not composed of two halves which are mirror symmetrical to each other with reference to a plane halving the article and extending at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the article. If the articles are axially non-symmetrical, they must be oriented in a certain way so that all filters of filter cigarettes, cigars or cigarillos face in the same direction prior to introduction into packs or other types of receptacles, and that the orientation of printed matter on each of a long series of articles will be the same.
Direct coupling of makers with processing machines is becoming increasingly popular in many types of industries including the plants for the production and processing of rod-shaped smokers' products. For example, it is already known to establish a mass flow of cigarettes between a filter tipping and a packing machine so that the magazine of the packing machine can receive the output of the filter tipping machine without the interposition of any intermediate stations. If the output of the tipping machine exceeds the requirements of the packing machine, the surplus of the output must be temporarily stored at so-called buffer stations, e.g., in reservoirs of the type known as through-flow reservoirs or first in-first out reservoirs, or in reservoirs of the type known as surge bins (first-in last-out reservoirs). It is also known to resort to buffer stations or magazines which employ chargers or trays. Such buffer stations must be provided with a tray filling unit which accepts the surplus of the output of a maker and stores the thus accepted surplus in trays, and a tray evacuating unit which accepts filled trays from the filling unit, which delivers empty trays to the filling unit, and which supplies cigarettes to the processing machine when the output of the maker is too low.
As a rule, the tray evacuating unit is constructed and assembled in such a way that it changes the orientation of cigarettes or other rod-shaped articles by 180 degrees. This means that, if the articles are axially non-symmetrical, it is necessary to turn each article end-for-end prior to admission into the processing machine because, in the absence of such tip-turning, the articles which are received from the trays are oriented in a first way whereas the articles which arrive directly from the maker are oriented in a different second way. Filled trays are normally turned along one of their longer edges so that the orientation of the tray during evacuation of its contents is changed by 180 degrees with reference to the orientation during filling. Therefore, heretofore known magazines which employ trays are designed in such a way that each filled tray is inverted by hand prior to evacuation of its contents. It is evident that such manual handling of filled trays slows down the entire operation and contributes significantly to the cost. Moreover, manual handling of trays prevents full automation of the tray manipulating operation and renders the entire plant overly dependent on the skill and/or conscientiousness of the attendants.